Hostage
by PinchofSalt
Summary: He forgot. I reminded him so many times and my father still forgot me. Now I have to walk home. Alone. In the middle of the night. In the woods. Fantastic. "Who's there?" And then she was gone. Short one-shot. I don't think I'll add anymore.


**This was a paper I wrote for literature class. Supposed to be a Gothic short story. Enjoy! I don't own Naruto or the characters.**

Sakura wandered through the forest blindly. She couldn't even see her hand in front of her face. Silently cursing her forgetful father she stumbled over a protruding root. Landing roughly on the cold hard ground, she shivered and pulled her jacket a smidge tighter to block out the biting cold of early winter. As she stood again she plotted ways to get back at her dad for forgetting to pick her up from Ino's house.

She had reminded multiple times about her plans to work on her project with Ino that night, telling him he needed to be there by eight o'clock to pick her up. By ten she had concluded he wasn't coming and with her friends parents out of town she had no choice but to walk home. She figured she would be fine since it was only a thirty minute walk, forgetting that tonight was the night of a new moon. As she slowly stood back up she noticed something move in the corner of her vision. Snapping her head violently in the direction of the movement she saw nothing. Blaming it on her frayed nerves she continued trekking towards home. After about two minutes she heard a snap and paused mid-step. After a moment of contemplation she came to the conclusion that it was just a small animal. Nevertheless, she hastened her pace unconsciously. It was only when she heard a soft flittering voice croak out her last name that she froze in her tracks. Spinning rapidly, she reached in her bag and rummaged around for the small hidden dagger her father had taught her to fight with. No sooner than she had firmly wrapped her hand around the hilt, the voice rose in volume to speak the name more clearly.

"Haruuuuunoooooo…" Sakura's face drained of color till it was a sickly pale shade.

"Who are you?!" Sakura shouted into the darkness. She could feel sweat dripping down the side of her brow as she waited for a response.

When she heard the next statement she nearly vomited. "Capture girl, lure father."

Sakura stopped and cleared her mind so she could think properly. 'So far I know three things about this mystery creature' she thought, trying to sort out her thoughts. 'One, It is after father for some reason or another. Two, it plans on using me to lure him out. And three, it is an unintelligent being. Something tells me this thing is being manipulated.' She snapped out of her thoughts when she saw a deathly pale hand stretching towards her face. She looked up and gasped when she saw a twisted and demented smile of rotting teeth and sharp nose. But the thing that frightened her the most, by far, had to be its eyes. There was no white or color in the eye. It was all an inky black that seemed to stretch on for an eternity. She saw pain and suffering in those depressing eyes. That did not stop her from turning on her heel to run. Unfortunately the beast had seen this coming and snatched her long braid in his icy cold fingers. Sakura was snapped back and was made to kneel on the hard and unforgiving ground. Finding it futile to struggle against the strong and firm hold it had on her soft hair she slowly reached into her bag and pulled out the dagger as quietly as possible. She knew she wouldn't be able to harm the creature from the angle she was being held at. Listening to its mumblings it occurred to her that he was somehow communicating with someone. She knew this would probably the only chance she would get. Tensing her whole body she positioned her worn dagger by his constricting hand. Drawing in a swift breath she released it as she made a clean cut right through her long precious pink hair that had been her only reminder of her late mother. The monster looked confused as it lifted up the long braid that wasn't attached to the girl's head anymore. Sakura ran as fast as her legs could carry her towards her home. Her eyes started watering with silent relief when she touched the cold handle of the door. Flinging herself inside, she twisted the lock and collapsed on the front carpet. Her dad called her name from the kitchen and she laughed disbelievingly as she got up and made her way into the kitchen. She turned the corner and screamed. The last thing she saw before her vision went blank was a pair of red eyes with three black commas spinning around the black pupil.


End file.
